My Kind of Town
Dances with demons
>> Makiki Heights
Sen. Donovan Matsuda-Yee-Dela Cruz-Bishop-Kamaka was getting further and further out there, even as he knew he had to come back. Where had Serena gone with his car? Serena, who couldn't drive. And he ought to call Grace at the office.But the pipe on the coffee table beckoned. So did another longneck Bud from the fridge. And the senator's demons lured him further out there still.
>> Portlock
Waiting for his cousin and brother to return in the black SUV, Seth sat in the shade keeping an eye on the house they'd seen Mickey just walk into.An HPD blue-and-white cruised slowly past. Seth noticed the young cop noticing him. The cop drove to the end of the dead-end street, turned around, slowly cruised back, stopped opposite Seth and got out of the car.
"What are you doing there?"
"Waiting."
"For what?"
"My brother and cousin."
"Where are they?"
"On the way here. I can ..." and he reached for the cell phone hooked to his belt.
"Get your hands up!" the cop said, going for his gun, not sure what this guy was pulling but taking no chances. "OK, stand up real slow."
It had had been years since he suited up for Coach Skippah, but Seth was still in decent shape, so standing up while keeping his hands in the air wasn't that difficult.
"It's a cell phone!" he said. "I was going to say, I can call them and ask when they'll be here."
The cop checked, saw the phone.
"OK."
Just then the SUV turned the corner. "That's them."
"What the hell's going on," Wili said, bounding out of the passenger side, surprisingly agile for such a big man.
"No problem. Just a misunderstanding," Seth said.
"Right," the cop said, holstering his weapon. "So back to my original question. What are you guys doing here?"
"Waiting for an acquaintance of our's," Tai said. "We're supposed to help do some work at that house." He pointed to the house they had seen the creep Mickey just walk into. The house they suspected was owned by the woman in the teal BMW that Mickey had been tailing when they caught up to him.
They could mention that to the cop and he'd bust Mickey. But that wasn't what this traditional aufoga was about. They would deliver their own justice for what he had done to Seth's daughter.
>> Tomorrow: Six-day synopsis
Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek.
His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin
with weekly summaries on Sunday.
He can be emailed at dchapman@midweek.com